This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Hong Kong protesters vow to occupy government buildings in ultimatum

Student leaders of pro-democracy protests dubbed the ‘umbrella revolution’ demanded that the territory’s leader resign by the end of Thursday or they would step up their actions.

A woman holds a placard at a large pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong on October 1, 2014. (ALEX OGLE / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

A pro-democracy activist shouts slogans on a street near the government headquarters on Wednesday in Hong Kong. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

Pro-democracy protesters gather on the streets near the government headquarters on Wednesday where banners and lampposts are decorated with slogans like this which says "Keep it up Hong Kong!" (Wong Maye-E / AP)

A pro-democracy activist shouts slogans on a street near the government headquarters where protesters have made camp on Wednesday in Hong Kong. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

Pro-democracy activists gather on a street near the government headquarters on Wednesday in Hong Kong. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

By Joanna ChiuKelvin ChanThe Associated Press

Wed., Oct. 1, 2014

HONG KONG—Raising the stakes in their standoff with the authorities, student leaders of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests warned they will step up their actions if the territory’s top official doesn’t resign by Thursday, possibly occupying several important government buildings.

Storming government buildings would risk inviting another confrontation with police. It also would put pressure on the Chinese government, which so far has said little beyond declaring the protests illegal and backing Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s attempts to end them.

Chinese state media indicated the government may be losing patience with the protests. An editorial solemnly read Wednesday on China’s main TV broadcaster CCTV said all Hong Kong residents should support authorities to “deploy police enforcement decisively” and “restore the social order in Hong Kong as soon as possible.”

Students are leading the protests for wider electoral reforms, which pose the stiffest challenge to Beijing’s authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997.

Lester Shum, vice secretary of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, said the students would welcome an opportunity to speak to a Chinese central government official.

“However, we ask them to come to the square and speak to the masses,” Shum told reporters. “This is a movement of Hong Kongers and not led by any specific group.”

Shum demanded that Leung resign by the end of Thursday. He said there was “no room for dialogue” with Leung because he had ordered police to fire tear gas at protesters over the weekend.

“Leung Chun-ying must step down. If he doesn’t resign by tomorrow we will step up our actions, such as by occupying several important government buildings,” he said, adding that demonstrators would not interfere with “essential” government agencies, such as hospitals and social welfare offices.

Chan Kin-man, another protest leader, said the demonstrations would continue as long as the Hong Kong government fails to give a satisfactory response to their demands.

“I hope people will understand why the action keeps on escalating. It’s because the government is getting more and more closed without listening to Hong Kong people,” he said in an interview on the street. “If the government can give us a proper response in due course I think we can end the occupation immediately.”

In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and said the U.S. supports the “highest possible degree of autonomy” in Hong Kong. He said he hopes Hong Kong authorities exercise restraint and allow the protesters to express their views peacefully.

Wang said that the protests are “China’s internal affairs” and that no country would allow “illegal acts” against public order.

The protesters oppose Beijing’s decision in August that all candidates in an inaugural 2017 election for the territory’s top post must be approved by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing local elites. They say China is reneging on a promise that the chief executive would be chosen through “universal suffrage.”

Upping the pressure on leaders in Beijing, sympathy protests sprang up in Macau, a former Portuguese colony that China took over in 1999, and in the independently ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

In Hong Kong, protesters heckled Leung as he attended a flag-raising ceremony early Wednesday marking China’s National Day, the day Communist China was founded in 1949. Hundreds yelled at him to step down, then fell silent and turned their backs when the ceremony began.

In a speech, Leung did not mention the protesters, but told voters it would be better to agree to Beijing’s plan for vetting candidates and hold an election than to keep the current system in which an Election Commission chooses the chief executive.

As the protests have worn on, Beijing’s tone has hardened.

President Xi Jinping, who has acted harshly against any perceived threats to the Communist Party’s hold on power, vowed in a National Day speech to “steadfastly safeguard” Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability.

An editorial in the Communist Party-run People’s Daily warned of “unimaginable consequences” if the protests persist.

“They have already severely disrupted the normal life of the Hong Kong public, and even endangered the property and personal safety of the Hong Kong public,” it said.

Protest numbers swelled on Wednesday, a national holiday, to tens of thousands, including many families with children, couples, students, retirees and foreigners who live in the city of 7 million. Many thronged a six-lane highway in front of the government headquarters in the Admiralty area, while others gathered in the downtown areas of Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.

“I came out today to support the movement. No student leaders or occupy leaders urged me to come out. I came out on my own,” said Pierre Wong, a 36-year-old IT technician. “I hope there will be democratic reform, instead of using the current framework.”

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com